The East Valley Institute of Technology and several East Valley school districts have announced a new agreement intended to address career and technical education opportunities for students across the region. The announcement highlights a shared focus on hands-on, career-oriented classrooms within EVIT’s campus.
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Exterior of the East Valley Institute of Technology health services building at the EVIT campus; EVIT and East Valley school districts announced a new agreement.
Officials described the agreement as one that places emphasis on practical training environments where students can gain trade skills. Photographs released with the announcement include views of EVIT’s health services building and illustrate the kinds of facilities that are part of the partnership.
Students working in an EVIT woodshop program; hands-on career-training classrooms are central to the agreement between EVIT and the East Valley districts.
The images also show students engaged in a woodshop program, reinforcing the announcement’s focus on experiential learning and career-pathway instruction. Those visual examples were presented to illustrate the types of hands-on classroom settings that the districts say will be central under the new arrangement.
The announcement itself was brief and centered on the collaboration between EVIT and the participating East Valley school districts. No additional specifics about timelines, funding, or enrollment changes were included in the material provided with the announcement.
School and district representatives provided the images and a summary describing the emphasis on career-technical classrooms; further details were not part of the release. Additional information about implementation and next steps has not been included in the materials accompanying the announcement.
The agreement resolves months of legal disputes between EVIT and nine East Valley districts over CTE funding and oversight. EVIT will invest millions in transportation to its Mesa campuses, enabling classes to resume and preserving student access to hands-on career programs. Sources including ABC15 and the Queen Creek Tribune reported the funding accord details absent from the initial release.
ABC15 reported the agreement includes a nearly $5 million investment to purchase buses and related services so EVIT can provide transportation to its Mesa campuses for the first time in the institute’s more-than-30-year history.
EVIT and district statements identified the nine districts involved as Apache Junction, Cave Creek, Chandler, Fountain Hills, Gilbert, Higley, J.O. Combs, Queen Creek and Tempe; the districts said the deal pauses the lawsuit and will allow their 76% pass-through Career and Technical Education (CTED) funding to be used for satellite programming in their home districts.
A recent Maricopa County Superior Court ruling found EVIT retains authority over the content and quality of CTED programs but also concluded that, without a new intergovernmental agreement, district-operated satellite programs and CTED funds already distributed to those districts are not subject to EVIT oversight.
EVIT and local reporting noted that Mesa Public Schools, Scottsdale Unified School District and American Leadership Academy already have intergovernmental agreements with EVIT and were not part of the dispute.